Late last fall, as Morgan Stanley and then UBS departed the Broker Protocol, lawyers that represent breakaway brokers (most prominently, Brian Hamburger of MarketCounsel) called foul over the way Protocol administrator Bressler, Amery & Ross (which, notably, often represents large brokerage firms as their own clients) only gave four days’ notice after the major wirehouses had already delivered notification that they were leaving the protocol (despite the fact that Protocol rules require firms to give 10 days’ notice).

…the decision to transition control of the Broker Protocol from Bressler, Amery & Ross to Capital Forensics appears to have been facilitated by SIFMA, and MarketCounsel’s Hamburger is once again raising concerns that it’s not entirely clear whether SIFMA had the authority to make the decision, nor even what selection criteria were used to arrive at choice of Capital Forensics.